Headed to Chi-Town...

...not to be confused with the equally wonderful Chai Town.
Anyway, I'll be in Chicago next week and therefore will not be posting, but once I get back prepare for some boss restaurant reviews (Chicago Diner here I come!) Love you guys! See you in a week!

Dinner for the Fam, v2.0

Om nom nom! This dinner was even better than the last. Because it seemed to go so well last time, I went with a down-home southern type of theme again that Bianca Crunk would be proud of. This time it was vegan mac n' cheeze, yummy garlic kale, and curried acorn squash (okay, so that one's not so southern, but I'm a yankee. I don't know better.)
The 'rents loved it! Here are the omni-pleasing recipes:

Super Simple Vegan Mac

Ingredients:
1 box cooked whole wheat elbow macaroni
1/4 cup almond milk (unsweetened)
1/3 cup veggie broth
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
2 tbsp whole wheat flour

What to do:
Combine your liquid ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Add in the flour and nutritional yeast and whisk until homogeneous. Add to a skillet and warm your mixture over medium heat. When your 'cheese' sauce is warm, add in your noodles. And voila! Enjoy!

Garlicky Kale


Ingredients:
1 large head of curly kale
1/4 cup veggie broth
3 cloves of garlic
Parma, for sprinkling on top

What to do:
Sautee garlic in veggie broth on medium heat until garlic is fragrant. Add in the kale and cover the pot, allowing kale to steam for about 5 minutes. Serve with Parma sprinkled on top.

Curried Acorn Squash


Ingredients:
1 bag of frozen acorn squash puree (Cascadian Farm makes one)
2 tsp curry powder
2 tbsp Earth Balance

What to do:
Steam frozen acorn squash until heated through. Add in curry powder and Earth Balance. That's it! You're done!

In Which I Make Dinner for my Family

You heard right. The other night, I offered to prepare a vegan dinner for my decidedly un-vegan family. Despite the fact that my family is about as southern as a polar bear, I decided to prepare a traditional(ish) down home dinner of barbecue seitan and broccoli from the PPK, corn muffins, and my own 'recipe' for mashed sweet taters, which was just local yams mixed with maple syrup and cinnamon. This would also be delish in a casserole with Sweet and Sara marshmallows mixed in, just sayin'. 

The Verdict: The parental units approved! They asked me to make them dinner again! *fist pump*

Mmmm...Pancakes

Hey all! I'm getting back in the blogging groove, and to celebrate I made some pancakes to share with you guys! These puppies are whole wheat banana pancakes. I kinda made up the recipe as I went along, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were hella good, especially with some pure maple syrup on top. Sticky deliciousness!

I obviously couldn't wait to eat before taking a picture, as is evidenced by the big chunk cut out of the pancake on the left!

Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes:

Makes 8 small-ish pancakes

What you'll need:

2 cups of whole wheat flour

1 big, ripe 'naner

1 cup of non-dairy milk

2 tsp of sugar

1 tsp baking powder

What to do:

Mix the flour, the sugar, and the baking powder together. Meanwhile, mash your banana up. If you like it chunky, just use a potato masher, but if you want it to be more of a puree, chuck it in the food processor quickly. Mix the banana with the milk, an add that mixture to the flour mixture. Stir it all up till it gets to be batter-like in consistency. If it has trouble getting to that point, don't be scared to add a little extra milk. When you're done mixing, lightly oil a griddle or big pan and pour your batter in, making your pancakes as big or as small as you want.